


red in our eyes

by redrobinhood



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Blood and Injury, F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-12
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:33:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26419549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redrobinhood/pseuds/redrobinhood
Summary: Prompt: Reluctant injury reveals - pulling off a hat to reveal blood in their hair.
Relationships: Riyo Chuchi/CC-1010 | Fox
Comments: 15
Kudos: 77
Collections: Let Me Heal Your Pain: A Foxiyo Collection





	red in our eyes

**Author's Note:**

> A pre-Whumptober warm-up thanks to LilHawkeye.
> 
> Also, this is my first Foxiyo fic that I didn't name after a song! (But I did get it from a lyric)

Riyo Chuchi didn’t look up as the door to her office slid open and a red-armored clone trooper stepped inside. If she had, she would have seen him walk three paces into her office and stop with his hands behind his back.

“Will you be requiring an escort this evening, ma’am?”

“Yes, Commander. Please, wait for me to finish this speech.”

Finish the speech, look over this speech, read these regulations, some verb and the title of her most recently received transmission. Whatever filled the time between his entrance and the closing of her door. The hiss and thunk of her durasteel door closing filled the room. After the sound had faded Fox’s posture relaxed and he made his way over to her desk.

“You’re speaking before the assembly tomorrow?” The light upturn of his voice turned the statement into a polite question. He’d already gone over the security details for tomorrow’s assembly.

“I am.” She set down the datapad she was working on and smiled up at him. “There’s been some murmurings in the Senate that Pantora is reconsidering our allegiance to the Republic. I’m going to put those rumors to rest.”

“I’m glad to hear that. I’d have a hard time loving a Seppie.”

“I hear that you clones spontaneously combust if you fall in love with a Separatist.”

Fox scoffed. “You heard right. Nasty bit of genetic programming there.”

Riyo laughed and turned off her datapad, slipping it into the hidden pocket in the folds of her gown. She rose from her chair and made her way around the desk to Fox, throwing an arm around his neck and taking ahold of one of his helmet’s respirators in the other hand. She pulled the helmet off in one smooth motion and set it on her desk. “I happen to quite like the nasty bits of your programming.”

“Believe it or not, I’ve noticed.” He leaned down to catch her lips in his, enjoying the soft moan she made as he slipped his hand onto the nape of her neck. “I don’t believe subtlety will ever suit you, Riyo.”

“I’m quite subtle, Fox.” She reached back for his helmet and pressed it into his hands. “I am a politician.”

He put his helmet back on and shifted his weight towards the door. “Don’t remind me.”

She followed his lead and they set off down the halls of the Senate, Fox a half step behind her. Most of the senators, representatives, and their staff had gone home at this point in the evening, but there were enough beings mulling about that she and Fox had to clear a path through them. That was an easy task with the Commander of the Guard at her side.

Riyo now requested an escort before any major vote or public speech, and if her request was always timed at a most inconvenient time for other guardsmen it happened to be a coincidence. Fortunately, Commander Fox was always willing to take one for the team and be her escort despite her unusual hours, even if it meant that he would have to return to the office and not the barracks to finish the rest of his duties for the evening. Or so the story so often went.

They avoided talking in the Senate halls. It would make them look too familiar; the existence of a conversation would be too memorable. If they were quiet, the other beings around them would simply pretend that Fox didn’t exist. This truth often angered Riyo, but as far as keeping her familiarity with the commander under wraps, it was quite efficient. No one would even remember he was there.

When they reached the speeder bay, Fox took off his helmet and tucked it under one arm. Riyo took a moment to glance back at him. She rarely got to see him while he was working. He was nearly unrecognizable as the man she had gotten to know over the past few weeks. Sure, they shared the same face and posture, but all of his mannerisms changed when he was outside of her apartment- bar the few times she had seen him relax around the other guardsmen. “Where are you parked, ma’am?”

“Cresh 3, Commander. I was able to find a better spot when I returned from lunch than we did this morning.” Neither of them had awoken until the dawn, far later than Fox usually rose this time of year. Fox had blamed Riyo for making him too comfortable, Riyo had gleefully accepted the blame as a compliment to be fired back the next time they overslept.

Riyo stood a few paces back from her speeder as Fox ducked to examine the undercarriage. He was gripping his helmet by the lip and she was about to tease him about damaging the delicate instruments on the interior- as he had too often cautioned her when he had allowed her to wear it- when he leapt back up and yanked her away from the speeder. Her shout of indignation was cut short by a yellow-white flash and the feeling that a duracrete wall had been slammed into her. That feeling was then replaced by the feeling of actual duracrete under her as she slid into another senator who had been knocked over by the blast. She scrambled to her feet and fell once more as her ankle gave out from under her. When she looked up again, she saw Fox approaching, helmeted, with visible scuffmarks across his arm. If he said anything to her it was lost in the ringing in her ears.

“My ankle.” She said, or at least she thought she did. The ringing was drowning out even our own voice. She was certain that Fox could read lips though. He always knew what some choice senators had said during an assembly despite never going near their repulsorpods.

Fox knelt beside her and placed her arms around his neck before slipping an arm under her shoulders and knees and picking her up. Despite the situation, Riyo found herself resting her cheek against the top of Fox’s pauldron. This was very nice. She would have to ask him to pick her up again under less life-threatening circumstances. He carried her back into the halls of the Senate, tracing the path back to her office through the crowds of panicked beings and scrambling guardsmen of both the Coruscant and Senate Guard. Once there, he set her down on one of her entertaining couches before locking the door, closing the curtains, and sweeping her office for any threats.

“Fox.” She called once the ringing in her ears had faded to a manageable level. When he turned to look at her she continued. “You could hold onto your helmet, but not me?”

“With all due respect, the bucket is much lighter.” He walked back over to her and sat down on the couch next to her outstretched legs. “Are you okay?”

“Rolled my ankle, and I think I’m going to have a datapad shaped bruise on my hip for a while, but I’m fine.” She reached over and took his hand. “Are you hurt? You were closer to the blast than I was.”

“I’m fine, Riyo.” He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and made to stand up. He swayed as he rose, and Riyo leaned forward to steady him, pulling him back down beside her on the couch. “Just vertigo. My inner ear is all screwed up from the shockwave.” He tried to reassure her.

Her hand that had gripped his shoulder felt wet and Riyo looked down to see fresh blood staining her skin. She reached up with her clean hand to remove Fox’s helmet before he could protest. She gasped at the gush of blood that the action released, dropping the helmet in shock. “Fox.” She gasped at the sight of blood covering nearly half his face.

“It’s fine, Riyo. Riyo, Ri, it’s fine.” He tried to take her hands in his, but her bloodied hand slid from his grasp. She reached up and ran her fingers through his hair until he winced under her touch. “Just a cut, slammed my head into the ground too hard, headwounds bleed a lot.” He assured her. “Nothing a night in a bacta tank won’t fix.”

“I’m calling a medic.”

“You should, you need someone to look at your ankle.”

“Fox.” She huffed. “Don’t do this to me.” She pulled him down again, this time onto her, forcing him to rest his head against her stomach. She ran her bloody fingers through his hair, careful to not snag the wound, as she fumbled for her comm. When she looked back down, his eyes were closed. Whether that was from comfort or to stop the spread of blood into his eye she didn’t know. Once a medical team had been summoned she went back to running her fingers through his hair. “Any other injuries you’d care to share?”

“Think I dislocated a few ribs when I hit the ground, but I’m pretty sure all my organs are intact.”

She couldn’t help a dismal laugh. “You carried me all the way here with multiple dislocated ribs? I could have hobbled!”

“Adrenaline is a hell of a drug.” He attempted to wipe some blood from his brow with his gloves but only succeeded in working it into his skin. He lifted his head up to look at her. “So is love.”

“Don’t be sappy.” She guided his head back to her stomach, trying to ignore the squelch of blood between them. “If you try to die for me, I will be very cross.”

“Your opinion is noted but shall ultimately be discarded if the opportunity arises.”

She sighed. “I know. But you’d better not die on me before you get a chance to see a planet that isn’t Coruscant, and Kamino doesn’t count.”

Any protests Fox may have had were forgotten with the sudden arrival of a medical team and a very stressed Commander Stone. Before Riyo knew what was going on, Fox was being taken from her grasp and placed on a stretcher and she was surrounded by worried medics and worried clones.

* * *

Fox didn’t look up as Riyo entered his office. He had his head in his arms, and if it weren’t for the twitch of his brow upon her arrival she would have assumed he was asleep.

“You’d better be bringing me good news.” He growled.

“How about some painkillers?” The clones were almost never given painkillers after an injury, not even the basic ones that most beings had in their homes.

He brought his head up, the tension draining out of his body at the sound of her voice. “Please.”

She passed him the little bag of pills she had grabbed from her office. She would need to restock her own supply soon, but in the meantime, Fox needed them more. She perched on his desk as he found a cup of water to take a pill with. Her eyes traced over the white bandage wrapped around his head as he drank. He caught her gaze as he set the cup back down. “So I don’t mess with the staples.”

“There weren’t any bacta tanks?” She asked incredulously.

“I spent the night in a bacta tank, Ri, but the wound still has to properly close.” He moved around the desk to her side. “How is your ankle?”

She rotated her ankle around in the heelless boots she’d chosen for the day. “A sprain. Used a cold bacta pack on it and it’s good as new. Actually, I’m a little mad about that. I think I would look particularly resilient in the Senate with a set of crutches.”

“I saw that you still plan on making your speech?”

“Of course. But it appears that my life may be at risk at the moment. I’m afraid that I’m going to have to request a last-minute escort to the auditorium.”

Fox laughed and reached for his helmet. He had anticipated this request. He had yet to replace his scuffed armor, but his helmet still fit over the bandage, making him the perfect escort for a targeted senator. He ushered her out of his office with a soft touch against her shoulder, allowing his hand to slide gently down and away from her arm. A last personal touch before they stepped back into their duties.


End file.
